E-zekiel Technology Blog

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Online Videos Continue to Increase in Popularity

Americans are increasingly turning online for content of interest, including surfing the Internet, watching online video and checking email. According to a Nov. 2011 survey conducted by JZ Analytics for Broadcom, nearly 87% of respondents consumed more than 11 hours of online content each week, at home or at work. Additionally, more than two-thirds of respondents said they watched at least one online video a day, while one-fourth said they watched three or more videos a day. Just as reminder: E-zekiel.com's media manager and companion site, E-zekiel.tv, make it easy to post and share Christian videos for free.

What Can You Do on LinkedIn

The social-networking site LinkedIn is considered a site for professional connections – as opposed to the connections of Facebook, which often bring in friends from past and present and mix them with family as well as acquaintances from all areas of life. With Facebook’s 900 million users compared to LinkedIn’s 150 million, the former apparently seems easier to employ than the latter. However, Business Insider recently offered helpful insight: 13 things you never knew you could do on LinkedIn. Take a look at the link below and see if some of these things could be applied to your church. For example, LinkedIn can be used to help find applicants for church positions, as well as for creating groups to organize and promote volunteer activities. Or since many people entering the workforce used LinkedIn, you could create a group for young professionals within your church.Or since many people want to learn more about the staff of the church prior to visiting, staff contact information on your website could be linked to individual staff profile pages on LinkedIn. Or you may find some other ideas from this link: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-use-linkedin-2012-4?op=1#ixzz1tdzCVE2t

901 Million and Counting

Facebook disclosed this month that it has 901 million users – which means it’s likely to go past 1 billion users this year. Twitter is the second largest social media network with 500 million users (although Twitter reports that only 140 million of those accounts are active). Is your ministry active in social networks? For E-zekiel customers, Facebook and Twitter icons can be added to site toolbars by adding the URL (web address) of your Facebook and Twitter pages into the fields in the Account manager. Additionally, if you’re using an E-zekiel theme for your design, E-zekiel also offers “Social Promoter Easy Panels” to promote your social content on your site.

Identifying Your Social Media Leader

Social media offers tremendous opportunity for staying connected to church members. But, like most efforts, someone or some ones need ownership over the need as well as empowerment to tackle the deeds. How can you choose the right social media team to promote your ministry? You can start with these tips from “Small Biz PR Report” for identifying “social media stars” and apply them with an eye to ministry.

Interacting with Blogs

In E-zekiel, you can enable the commenting feature on a blog if your plan includes the People manager, which allows visitors to register on your site. Comments are just one more way to engage with your audience. By posting your blog on social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter, you provide another means for comments and interaction. Additionally, social media serves some of the same functions for your blog that RSS readers have because they allow people to follow content of their choosing.

Happy Easter

With egg hunts, special music, moving services and more, Easter draws people to your church, so your church can draw people into a relationship with Christ. We hope your website continues to play a pivotal role in spreading the message about your events and activities, so you can spread the message of hope that lives in the resurrected Jesus. After all, that’s why we’re here, and that’s what we’re called to do. So thanks for allowing us to serve you. In the meantime, we wish you a worshipful, wonderful Easter!

The offices of E-zekiel will be closed Friday, April 6, in observance of Good Friday.

Counting Blog Subscribers

A blog channel created in E-zekiel will have a designated feed URL, which is easily visible when opening the channel. You can keep track of the visits to your blog through Google Analytics via the Statistics manager. Additionally, if you’d like to keep track of the number of subscribers to your blog, you can submit this URL to statistics services that track stats on feeds.

Email for a Special Day

Email is sort of boundless, isn’t it? You can send one message to one person, or one message to a thousand. You can send a message to the person in the next office or to someone across the world. And within these messages there are relationship-building opportunities. Take birthdays and anniversaries. They aren’t just for social media. You can also use email to communicate a personal message on these happy occasions. This would be especially appropriate for Sunday school classes or other ministry leaders.

E-zekiel enables you to send targeted messages to certain groups, which is useful for these special-day recognitions. Plus, there are many other ways you can stay in touch – such as blogs, podcasts, online calendars. In addition, you can grow connections through the Facebook and Twitter icons available for site toolbars by adding the URL (web address) of your Facebook and Twitter pages into the fields in the Account manager.

Social Media and Event Promotion

Are you using social media to promote events for your church? Many small businesses and nonprofits are doing so – in fact, according to a Feb. 2012 survey released from engagement marketing firm Constant Contact, 77% of event planners currently use social media to promote events, while event promotion via social media is on the radar screen within the next year for another 14%. Along with email, online marketing tools, websites and print advertising, 78% of survey respondents believe social media is an important event marketing tool. Read more

Register for Online Training - Discover How Forms Can Be Used

Learn how to use the Designs manager to make one of our designs your own. Personalize a design from our library with your photos, colors and personal touches. Transform any design into a custom design just for you - all from what you'll learn during this event.

Though not required, a basic understanding of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is helpful.